1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. – Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics

If Isaac Asimov were a Medgadget reader, he would be excited to learn about the developments in robotics, especially in the field of healthcare (e.g. the da Vinci surgical system). With the exception of products such as the Roomba, however, robots have failed to penetrate the consumer market in a meaningful way. Intuitive Automata Inc. is a company that aims to change that with their Autom robot, a friendly machine that aims to be your weight loss coach. They recently launched an indiegogo campaign to fund their initial manufacturing run of the robot. We caught up with Intuitive Automata’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Cory Kidd, to learn more about how he believes the Autom can be applied to healthcare.

Shiv Gaglani, Medgadget: What is your background in technology, especially as it relates to medicine?

Dr. Cory Kidd: I did my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Georgia Tech, where I focused on human-computer interaction. I was working on projects related to health and the elderly population and ended up helping to oversee the construction and running of a research lab for work on aging in place, the Aware Home (http://www.awarehome.gatech.edu). In 2001 I went back to school, going to the MIT Media Lab where I did my M.S. and Ph.D. in human-robot interaction. The first few years of that were focused on the psychology of these interactions and the last 3-4 years I was working jointly at Boston University Medical Center in the clinic of Dr. Caroline Apovian.

Over the last nearly decade and a half, I have had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of health-related challenges with many types of technology.

Medgadget: How did you come up with the idea (and name) for Autom? It sounds like “Autumn” – are there plans to make a corresponding male robot?

Kidd: The name ‘Autom’ is sort of a play on words. For psychological reasons, we wanted Autom to be seen as more feminine — people in western cultures tend to see women as more helpful and supportive and the work of Cliff Nass at Stanford University shows that these stereotypes carry over into technology. We named the company Intuitive Automata using the word for robots that pre-dates the actual word ‘robot’ by a long time. (‘Robot’ is a relatively new word coined less than a century ago by the Capek brothers for a play. The genesis of the word isn’t very positive, it means “serf labor” or “hard work.”)

Then the name Autom is a shortening of Automata and can also be a woman’s name, so we went with that for our first product, our health coach.

We plan to offer other voices, other personalities, and additional accessories in the future so that everyone will be able to customize their robot as they like.

Medgadget: Who do you expect to benefit from purchasing Autom? In what ways?

Kidd: Our first product is our health coach that helps someone who is trying to lose or maintain their weight. If we look around the US, we have 69% of our adult population overweight or obese, and the numbers are growing around the rest of the world as well. One of the biggest challenges for people trying to diet is simply sticking with the diet and Autom provides the motivation and support that is needed to succeed. So there are many people who could benefit from having Autom at home as their coach.

Medgadget: Do you have any initial results that indicate how effective Autom is at actually being a weight coach?

Kidd: Yes, there are clinical results showing the efficacy of Autom in keeping people on a weight loss program for longer than either a computer running identical software or today’s standard of care, the paper log. This was published as part of my Ph.D. dissertation at MIT and is available at http://www.intuitiveautomata.com/documents/KiddPhDThesis.pdf.

Medgadget: We see that there are plans to integrate Autom with devices such as activity monitors and weight scales. Are there plans to integrate Autom with mHealth (e.g. text-messaging, social networking) and – perhaps more ambitiously – EHRs? Do you already have partnerships in line (e.g. with Fitbit, Withings, Zeo, etc)?

Kidd: Yes, integration is an important part of what we’re doing with Autom and with trends in consumer healthcare technology in general. One of the exciting things about where the industry is moving is a trend towards open APIs. So things like the Fitbit activity tracker or the Withings wireless scale have data available that we can integrate with without needing to go through any process of forming a partnership.

As we’re preselling Autom on indiegogo (http://igg.me/p/279351?a=1760739), we’re taking requests from our early customers about which devices we should be integrating and working to get those in place by the time Autom ships.

In the near future, integrating with mHealth applications and technologies is on the drawing board. Creating or partnering with the right smartphone app or two is something that we want to happen in the next six months.

Slightly further down the road, we expect to be integrating with EHRs. We have a lot of interest in our product from clinicians, from hospitals, from insurers, and from employers. To make the technology that we’re creating an important and effective part of the healthcare system, I believe that this kind of integration is necessary.

Medgadget: What does Autom use for speech recognition? There’s been a lot of talk about Google’s voice recognition platform and how it trounces Siri – what are your thoughts?

Kidd: We’re looking at integrating speech recognition in the near future, but we’re not quite there yet because of the technology. One thing that is paramount for us is the user experience. Autom should be easy for anyone to use, whether you’re the kind of person reading this blog post on your iPad on the go or if you’re someone who has never owned a computer. In fact, one of our early users was a retired state police trooper outside of Boston who wanted to have nothing to do with Autom when I brought her into his home and then refused to give her up a couple months later!

With speech recognition, it’s gotten to the point where it works pretty well on your mobile phone. Not perfectly, but definitely much more usable than a few years ago. Now when we move the microphone from being an inch from your mouth to on Autom on the counter top in front of you, it starts picking up more background noise and the recognition accuracy starts to drop. We don’t want people to have the experience of Autom constantly saying things like “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”, “Can you repeat that?”, or “I think you said…”. We want to make sure she works well for everyone consistently before we introduce new features.

If you want to learn more about her, you can see our web site for Autom at http://www.myautom.com and if you want one of your own or to support us in our quest to bring beneficial social robots to the world, please support our Indiegogo campaign today at http://igg.me/p/279351?a=1760739.

Shiv Gaglani is an MD/MBA candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard Business School. In addition to curating the Smartphone Physical (www.smartphonephysical.org), he also contributes regularly to CardioSource World News and Emergency Physicians Monthly. He is interested in developing scalable, tech-based solutions for medicine and education; to this end he is the co-founder of the medical education tech start-up, Osmosis (www.osmosis.org).
More about Shiv: http://about.me/sgaglani

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We launched Field Service in 2002 and have been dedicated to supporting the growth of the service industry ever since.

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We launched Field Service in 2002 and have been dedicated to supporting the growth of the service industry ever since. What started off as 100 people in a room discussing the future of service has become 500 senior-level service executives being inspired while learning and developing their company as well as their careers. At Field Service Medical, whether it’s an interactive roundtable discussion, case study presentation, panel, or one-on-one Q&A, you’ll have the chance to get the solutions you are looking for. You will receive targeted, niche learning opportunities throughout the conference. Guaranteed.

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On behalf of Pulsus group, we take immense pleasure in inviting all the participants from all over

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On behalf of Pulsus group, we take immense pleasure in inviting all the participants from all over the world to attend the Smart Materials conference entitled “4th International Conference on Innovative and Smart Materials” to be held in Berlin, Germany during February 27-28, 2019. The conference will be organized around the theme “Appreciating Innovative Smart Materials for a Smart Future”Smart materials are those materials which have properties to react to changes in their environment. This means that one of their properties can be changed by an external condition such as light, pressure, temperature. So Smart Materials are defined as “Materials that can significantly change their mechanical, thermal, optical, or electromagnetic properties, in a predictable or controllable manner in response to their environment” as there are many possibilities for such materials and structures in the manmade world many innovations are happening in the field of material science that are enough smart to help human beings in an any of the ways like structural health monitoring, self-repair, defence and Space, Nuclear Industries, Reducing wastes. Smart materials also have many applications in different fields of medicine and engineering and the rise in demand for the smart materials is enough to believe that there is a great scope for the smart materials in the future. So, this conference is about bringing out the new smart and innovative ideas from the people belonging to the material sciences from all over the world for the smart future. “Just keep in mind that acquiring pre-emptive knowledge about emerging technologies is the best way to ensure that we have a say in the making of our future.”Conference Highlights

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PULSUS brings in a new spin on conferences by presenting the latest scientific improvements in your field. Listen to motivating keynotes from thought leaders or rub elbows with pioneers across

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PULSUS brings in a new spin on conferences by presenting the latest scientific improvements in your field. Listen to motivating keynotes from thought leaders or rub elbows with pioneers across the globe. Amsterdam is all set for an amazing event as PULSUS proudly presents the “International Conference on Advanced Microbiology and Research slated on March 11-12, 2019 at Berlin, Germany.

Advanced Microbiology 2019 has been designed in an interdisciplinary manner with a multitude of tracks to choose from every segment and provides you with a unique opportunity to meet up with peers from both industry and academia and establish a scientific network between them. We cordially invite all concerned people to come join us at our event and make it successful by your participation.

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With great pleasure, AAC welcomes you to join the 8th International Conference on Neurological Disorders and Stroke to be held

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With great pleasure, AAC welcomes you to join the 8th International Conference on Neurological Disorders and Stroke to be held on March 14-16, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. Stroke 2019 congregates the eminent scientist, Neurosurgeons, researchers, academics and dynamic experts from healthcare industries around the globe in the field of neurological science.

The vital goal of Stroke 2019 is to build up an efficient platform for the scientists, neurologists, research scholars, principal investigators, and industry experts to exchange their practical experiences in the field of Neuroscience and stroke. This forum will impart meeting and collaboration of the experts in neurology, physicians, researchers, and academics to endeavour new diagnosing techniques, management and prevention of stroke patients.

The location of the conference is a hub of top medical research centers and universities. On behalf of the organizing committee, we proudly invite you to this exciting event in London, UK and hope you will have satisfiable experts and academic interactive sessions.

Benefits of attending the conference

Stroke 2019 will provide you an excellent platform to have brainstorm idea for diagnosis and management of the stroke as well as the neurological disorders. Stroke 2019 will behold of professionals and experts from around the globe who will demonstrate their innovative research for the amelioration of neurological health.

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Organised in association with UKIHMA - a strategic partner of Healthcare UK, a UK government trade promotion organisation jointly funded

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Organised in association with UKIHMA – a strategic partner of Healthcare UK, a UK government trade promotion organisation jointly funded by the Department for International Trade, the Department of Health and NHS England. Future Healthcare is the UK’s largest exhibition and conference showcasing products and services across all vertical sectors that will contribute to our future healthcare system. Taking place at Olympia London from 18-19 March 2019, Future Healthcare gathers more than 4,000 attendees from 65 countries for two days of education, cross border purchasing and deal making.

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"Middle East Heart Congress " which will be held amid March 18-20, 2019 Dubai, UAE. Heart 2019 gathering aims to unite the most dedicated minds in the business, driving Physicians, Medical Practition

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“Middle East Heart Congress “ which will be held amid March 18-20, 2019 Dubai, UAE. Heart 2019 gathering aims to unite the most dedicated minds in the business, driving Physicians, Medical Practitioners, Surgeons, Nurses and scholastics everywhere throughout the nations to share thoughts and feature their accomplishments. Offering chance to find out about the unpredictability of the heart diseases, talk about interventional systems, take a glance through new and progressed cardiovascular practices and their proficiency and adequacy in the treatment of different cases, and comprehend neighborhood substances and viable imperatives in enhancing understanding consideration. Notwithstanding giving analysts a place to exhibit their discoveries and information, it will likewise help increment open commitment with science and group.

Occasions identified with cardiology have a wide extension scope throughout the world. These major logical occasions come up completely examined to proffer the best prospect for the academicians regarding joint efforts to embrace the International workshops to introduce their examination, and exchange experts, showing their items and administrations and B2B networking. The logical meetings incorporate oral and publication introductions, courses, and workshops from the experts working in the field of cardiology: clinical cardiology, heart devices, cardiac pharmacology. We are experienced coordinators of gatherings, displays, and workshops. Our meetings offer world-class content, extraordinary delegate understanding and remarkable systems administration openings in directing cardiology understudies, cardiologists, researchers, inquire about researchers, therapeutic specialists, driving restorative enterprises to champion proficient and social association with sister associations and effectively agree inside the examination and safe use of the solution with respect and morals.

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On behalf of the organizing committee for Bioinformatics Conference 2019, it is our honour and pleasure to cordially invite you

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On behalf of the organizing committee for Bioinformatics Conference 2019, it is our honour and pleasure to cordially invite you to the International Conference on Bioinformatics & System Biology, which will be held on March 20-21, 2019 at Singapore.

Working with the topic “The Rise of Biological Era”, the Conference comprises of 11 tracks/sessions that are designed to address the various issues and innovations in all the related fields of Bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics Conference 2018 promises to offer an exciting scientific program with various experiences such as plenary lectures, expert sessions, awards, workshops and industry symposia, etc., uniting a worldwide blend of vast and medium therapeutic and clinical research and analytic organizations, driving colleges and medicinal research foundations.

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Scientific Federation conferences are covering a broad range of research in the Science, Technology, Medical, Pharma, Clinical and Engineering. Attending

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Scientific Federation conferences are covering a broad range of research in the Science, Technology, Medical, Pharma, Clinical and Engineering. Attending a Scientific Federation Conferences are immense access to ground-breaking research presentations and discussions, and the informal atmosphere and smaller size of a conferences provides the best break to develop collaborations, get innovative ideas and opportunity for your own work – and plan for the subsequent stage of your scientific career. Scientific Federation organizing 4th World Congress & Expo on Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Systems (Pharmaceutics-2019), which will be held during March 25-26, 2019 in Milan, Italy. This conference brings well versed scrutinizers at one place and provides a platform to have open discussion, knowledge sharing and interactive sessions with field experts.

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2nd International Summit on Dermatology (Dermatology-2019), which will be held during March 25-26, 2019 in Milan, Italy is now an established event,

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2nd International Summit on Dermatology (Dermatology-2019), which will be held during March 25-26, 2019 in Milan, Italy is now an established event, attracting global participant’s intent on sharing, exchanging and exploring new avenues of Dermatology and related research and latest developments. The event will have 5-6 world level (Highly cited class) Plenary speakers, established Keynote speakers, active Invited speakers and fresh contributed speakers. In addition, variety of poster presentations along with workshops and special sessions would be interested in audience.

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10% off with code D10-874-874AX01
This premier event is designed to provide professionals working in the life sciences space with a

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10% off with code D10-874-874AX01

This premier event is designed to provide professionals working in the life sciences space with a strong working knowledge of core FDA competencies.

In addition to providing a “101” training, our updated agenda offers advanced guidance sessions discussing the pathways to approval, a patent and IP overview for pharmaceuticals, post-approval issues, and recalls and withdrawals. In addition, each step of the process comes with strategies to apply this knowledge to real-life situations.

Experts at this event will help you:

COMPREHEND the structure of FDA

GAIN a practical working knowledge of clinical trial process for pharmaceutical products

MASTER the basics of the application and approval processes for drugs, as well as follow-on products such as ANDA’s and Biosimilars

RECOGNIZE the pivotal role of labeling, as well as promotions and off-label communications in drugs and biologics

APPRECIATE the complexities of pharmaceutical IP and the regulatory balance between brand name and generic products

UNDERSTAND the importance of cGMPs to the post-approval regulatory process

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The Medical Imaging Convention is the UK’s only free event that offers a comprehensive programme on the latest innovations in

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The Medical Imaging Convention is the UK’s only free event that offers a comprehensive programme on the latest innovations in imaging diagnosis and treatment. The event provides the most up-to date research, data and developments that will enable better patient outcomes, efficiency and cost effectiveness in UK medical imaging.

After a massively successful show in 2018, The Medical Imaging Convention makes an exciting move to the NEC, Birmingham on the 26th & 27th March 2019 for its biggest show to date.

The event provides a unique platform for 2,500 Senior Management teams, Radiology Managers, Hospital Managers and PACS Managers to discover the latest innovations currently revolutionising the industry, and hear expert guidance through inspiring CPD accredited seminars, transforming diagnosis and treatment within areas such as cancer, stroke, dementia and major trauma.

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Europe’s largest trade event of its kind will attract more than 3,500 of the world’s top neuro professionals to Birmingham

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Europe’s largest trade event of its kind will attract more than 3,500 of the world’s top neuro professionals to Birmingham for a world-class two-day show. Playing host to expert speakers, CPD-accredited seminars, interactive workshops and a selection of the most innovative neurological solutions available, this is the most important two days of the year for the global neurology profession.

After a massively successful show in 2018, The European Neuro Convention makes an exciting comeback to the NEC Birmingham on the 26th & 27th March 2019 for its biggest show to date.

The event provides a unique platform for clinical experts, senior decision makers and budget holders from the UK’s leading hospitals, rehabilitation centres, private practices and clinical commissioning groups. They will all get to discover the latest innovations currently revolutionising the industry and hear expert guidance through inspiring CPD accredited seminars.

The event is completely free to attend, to book your free tickets go to: www.neuroconvention.com or call 0117 990 2097.

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Europe’s premier trade event for oncology professionals bringing over 2,000 leading clinicians and researchers from the UK and Europe’s leading

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Europe’s premier trade event for oncology professionals bringing over 2,000 leading clinicians and researchers from the UK and Europe’s leading public and private hospitals together. The show provides the perfect platform to source the latest innovationsand education in preventing, diagnosing, treating and caring for head and neck, lung, GI, breast and GU cancer.

After a hugely successful show in 2018 at ExCeL, London, the European Oncology Convention makes an exciting debut at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre on the 26th & 27th March 2019 for its biggest show to date.

Throughout the two days, oncology experts will discover the latest innovations currently revolutionising the industry and discover expert guidance through inspiring CPD accredited seminars.

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On behalf of OLOGY MAVENS we take an immense pleasure to invite you to attend the conference "World Congress on

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On behalf of OLOGY MAVENS we take an immense pleasure to invite you to attend the conference “World Congress on Neurology & Neurological disorder” during April 08-09, 2019 in Toronto, Canada, and will be organized around the theme “Divulging contemporary advances in Neurology“. Neurology Congress 2019 will bring together experts like Neuroscientists, Clinicians, Neurogeneticst, Neurologists, Psychiatrists, Medical practitioners, Care specialists, academic professionals and students from all over the world to share an interest in the genetic pathways underlying neurological disorders, techniques to identify those genetic pathways, and the use of genetics and genomics as tools to develop therapeutics.

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Human Genetics Meet 2019 invites all the participants from all over the world to attend 6th World Congress on Human

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Human Genetics Meet2019 invites all the participants from all over the world to attend 6th World Congress on Human Genetics and Genetic Diseases, composed of theme- “Know the current generation to save the future generation” is during April 08-10, 2019, Abu Dhabi, UAE which includes prompt keynote presentations, Oral talks, Poster presentations and Exhibitions.

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Ireland's medical technology sector has evolved into one of the leading European clusters for medical technology and diagnostic opportunities. Our

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Ireland’s medical technology sector has evolved into one of the leading European clusters for medical technology and diagnostic opportunities. Our annual Innovation Summit Dublin, located in the heart of this technology sector, is recognized as the leading medical technology investment forum in Europe.

This top-tier annual event brings together more than 450 leading experts, innovators, and key decision-makers to discuss the critical challenges facing the ever-evolving global medtech community.

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Built on a foundation of seven years of timely and informative content the 8th Digital Marketing for Medical

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Built on a foundation of seven years of timely and informative content the 8th Digital Marketing for Medical Devices West conference is an integral part of ExL Events’ industry-leading Digital Marketing for Medical Devices series. Organizations, both large and small, will share insights on how they are communicating to their market about the groundbreaking devices they offer. This conference is designed to provide tactical presentations that can serve as a roadmap to implementing similar programming at your organization.

Top Five Reasons to Attend

1. Network with other medical device marketers who are facing similar challenges and opportunities so you can learn from one another in a more casual setting.

2. Learn about recent successes and failures presented by stakeholders who lived through them in order to identify new opportunities and proactively anticipate roadblocks

3. Participate in discussions around integrating sales and marketing to develop more cohesive outreach, reduce duplicative work and open communication to ensure departments are learning from one another

4. Demonstrate value in a meaningful way to key customer bases, whether they be financially-driven executives at hospitals, clinically-driven surgeons, and healthcare providers, or patients who are motivated by several different factors

5. Participate in the industry’s leading event series that provides you with unparalleled networking opportunities, insights you can’t get anywhere else, and access to vendors and solution providers who can help you develop and execute marketing strategies that stand out

Medical technologies transform the world! Join us and see the progress in real time. At Medgadget, we report the latest technology news, interview leaders in the field, and file dispatches from medical events around the world since 2004.